Rice vs. North Texas prediction: Odds, picks, best bet for AAC clash

It’s been a season of ups and downs for our “Ugly Underdogs.” Three weeks ago, we were riding high at 5-3 and staring down another profitable season.Two non-covers by Sacramento State and Nevada later, and we’re back at .500 as we head down the stretch.

Don’t worry, though, we’re backing the Rice Owls this week.They’d never let us down, right?College football programs are like snowflakes.

They’re all made of the same stuff, but no two are exactly the same.And it’s not just X’s and O’s that make them different.It’s their location, the size of the school, and even their academic standards.To an outsider, Rice University, which is located in the heart of Houston, has the makings to be a football powerhouse.It is located smack in between two of the biggest talent heartlands in the country, the rolling hills of Texas and the Louisiana Gulf, and Rice is a prestigious institution, not unlike Notre Dame.But the school has never bent on its rigorous academic standards, even for football players, which has severely limited the pool of players who are eligible to suit up for the Owls.Instead of being the “Notre Dame of the South,” Rice was the butt of an ad-libbed joke by President John F.

Kennedy during his famous speech about going to the Moon in 1962.Kennedy, when stressing the importance of challenging yourself by attempting to do difficult things, like flying to the moon, joked, “Why does Rice play Texas?”Knowing that the program needed a new direction because of its standards, Rice made an interesting hire before the 2025 season, bringing in Scott Abell from Davidson.Abell got the gig by proposing that Rice adopt the triple-option offense, like Army, Navy, and Air Force, to offset the lack of talent at its disposal.The early returns were decent.

Rice went 5-8 and earned an invitation to the Armed Forces Bowl in Abell’s first season.Things have not gone nearly as well for the Owls (1-7, 0-4 AAC) this year, but they’re not as bad as ...